Ornamental fish culture can play a significant role in employment generation – Experts

5 months ago

Ludhiana 16 October 2018 ( BySK.Vyas):College of Fisheries, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana organized a three days training programme on “Ornamental fish culture and aquarium fabrication”. 13 participants, including 3 women candidates, from different districts of Punjab attended the training programme. The participants were given insight into technical knowhow for ornamental fish farming including identification of candidate species suitable for culture and breeding under climatic conditions of Punjab, management protocols with special reference to production of natural food, supplementary feed formulation, water quality and health management, colour enhancement through nutritional manipulations etc. Hands on training session was also organized on breeding set up for different ornamental fish species, aquarium fabrication and decoration along with culture of ornamental aquatic plants. Dr. Vaneet Inder Kaur and Dr. Sachin O. Khairnar, conducted the training programme as Course Coordinator and Technical Coordinator.

According to Dr. Meera D. Ansal, Head, Department of Aquaculture, domestic ornamental fish market is worth around Rs. 500 million with an increasing annual demand of 20 %, and India’s share in world ornamental fish trade is only around 0.32 %, indicating huge potential for the expansion of the sector. Ornamental fisheries in India is majorly concentrated in 5 Indian states viz. west Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and the ornamental fish Industry in Punjab is fully dependent upon these states for various inputs, including fish. She further added that continuous increasing demand of ornamental fish in the state and available technologies offer substantial scope of developing a self-reliant ornamental industry besides creating potential opportunities for self-employment/employment generation.

Dr. K. S. Sandhu, Dean, College of Fisheries, said that ornamental fish culture is a skill oriented activity, which needs practical exposure and thorough training. Therefore, one must adopt it after gaining proper knowledge and skills. Dr. H. K. Verma, Director Extension Education, expressed that ornamental fish culture, breeding and seed production can be taken up as backyard or roof top activity by rural/urban women and hence, can also play a significant role in women empowerment besides self-employment/employment generation. He also informed that GADVASU provides trainings on various livestock farming practices, like dairy, poultry, goat, piggery and processing and value addition of milk/fish/meat etc.